Relationships

Before its too late.

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Before.

Before there was stuff, there was God.

Before there was a sunrise, there was the community of Father, Son and Spirit.

Before there was life there was God’s glory.

Before we spoke God spoke.  (See Genesis 1:1-5)

Before.

1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was in the beginning with God. 3All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.  John 1:1-5

Before it was too late…

14the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.  John 1:14

This makes me want to see Jesus before I…

speak.

take up a cause.

despair in the darkness.

create momentary loves.

Quick, Come Lord Jesus,

Before…

Its not about moi

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The ability to suspend judgment requires not only skill but also a lot of energy.

 

This is especially true when you want to be a good friend or parent, or spouse, that conveys empathy, interest, and acceptance.

 

Listening long and with compassion doesn’t mean you approve of or agree with their position.  But you can begin to discern what the roots of their position is.  You can begin to hear what is in their heart.

 

Here are proverbs that create relational tension for me.

 

13If one gives an answer before he hears,

it is his folly and shame.

 

14A man’s spirit will endure sickness,

but a crushed spirit who can bear?

 

15An intelligent heart acquires knowledge,

and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge.

 

16A man’s gift makes room for him

and brings him before the great.

 

17The one who states his case first seems right,

until the other comes and examines him.

 

Proverbs 18:13-17

 

The crushed spirit needs a friend.

But the crushed spirit has also likely lost perspective.

“It” has become all about “moi.”

And while this crushed one needs empathy,

at the right time he also needs

to see the bigger picture;

“It” is not all about “moi.”

You don’t have to listen to me…

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My 2+ group read these verses last week and I have not been able to get away from them:  James 3:13-18

13Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. 14But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. 15This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. 16For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. 17But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. 18And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

The meekness of wisdom.  Meekness is not a popular word.  So meek and mild.  Why is mild put together with meekness?  It has nothing to do with it.

Meekness has to do with controlled strength.  Think of sitting on the strongest and mightiest horse, giving a subtle command, and having the horse respond.  That’s meekness.  Controlled strength.

That’s Jesus.  Truly He IS the wisdom that came from heaven.  Controlled strength.  See Jesus, the magnificence and majesty of God wrapped up in flesh.  The meekness of wisdom.

Is that me and is that you?  Meek.

The meekness of wisdom says, “You don’t have to listen to me for me to feel good about myself.  You don’t have to listen to me for the world to be set right.  But I will listen to you… for a while.

And then hopefully we can draw out the wisdom of heaven

and all be better for it.”

When Jesus gives you your life back…

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This morning we read Luke 17:11-19 at my breakfast table.  There where no fireworks over our oatmeal but I did feel the Lord move my heart.

When you have lost so much and then Jesus unexpectedly gives it back… gratitude can light up the sky!

The ten people who met Jesus in the story have not only had to deal with a medical condition, they have had to grieve their persistent social alienation day after humiliating day.

And now because of God’s grace they could start over!

Only one came back to tell Jesus, “thank you.”

And I think this one, got so much more than new skin!

Did he get a new heart?

Now he could go home as a changed man.  His “faith had made him well.”

From this day forward faith in Jesus is something he lives with.

Wrecked… Kin in the Kingdom of God

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This morning I read a post written by Ann Voskamp about her trip to Haiti.  Halfway through I kept having to sweep the tears in order to finish.  Wrecked.  Its too easy to distance ourselves from our kin who live in poverty.  Its too easy rest in the self-righteousness of “where I was born.”  She writes,

And when our Haitian Compassion translator, Johnny, stands in The Alpha Hotel with its rats running down the hallways, he tells us how, after getting his BA in Florida, he’d got his MDiv in North Carolina.

How he’d come back to Haiti to work for Compassion, and took in 5 starving Haitian orphans to raise with his own 3 and saved to send all 8 of them to university.

How he’d walked out of the Hotel Montana not 30 seconds before it collapsed in the earthquake and how after the quake, how he’d climbed from one tree to the next, all down the mountain from the Montana, all the roads blocked with rubble and death, wild to find his kids and wife somewhere in Port Au Prince that is home.

And that’s when I couldn’t stop it – when it came out of me, a whisper, but still too loud.

Like an angry fool, I had asked him, laid my hand on his arm and quietly begged him, “Johnny, I know you were born here – but someday — couldn’t you take your family and move to a land like the States?”

Just step over the rubble and beggars and latrines and garbage and gangs and just get your family out of this place where you were born and come find the land of the free? It’s ugly, but it’s what I thought for our friend: You only get one life here and who really wants to spend it in the slums?

And he looked me in the eyes and he waited, searching mine.

Searching for a way to get the truth right into me, me born into the lap of ease of the West and homesick for the farm and wanting everyone to have the relative ease of the middle class.

“But I am Moses.” Johnny speaks it deep, his eyes never leaving mine, his fatherly hand gently squeezing mine, soothing out my roaring wail.

“I am Moses. I do not leave my kindred.”

And the whole planet and all my heart reverberates.

I am Moses. I do not leave my kindred.

You don’t leave your kin to save your own skin.

You don’t stay in the palace if you want anybody to find deliverance – especially yourself.

You don’t forget who your brother is — when you know Who your Father is.

I turn away, chin quaking hard. I’ve got a passport in my bag and a ticket to ease and he only gets one life here and he’s living in the desperate need of this one for the definite reward of the next one – and how in the world again am I living mine?

If the grace of my life is mostly where I am born, and I am born again into the family of Christ, than how can my life birth anything other than a grace that gives?

Read the whole post and take in the pictures.